Lately Nala’s taken on the role of Fierce House Guardian, faithfully alerting us to all kinds of potential intruders – squirrels, birds, the occasional neighbourhood dog that’s escaped from its’ house and wanders through our yard. That kind of thing. She doe sthe job very effectively, and stands guard at the back door looking out for the little menaces.
First it starts with a huffing noise, which might turn into growling if she thinks she sees something. If she actually sees something (usually a squirrel), then she lets out a surprisingly deep bark or two.
A couple of times the last few weeks some of the neighbours’ dogs have become escape artists, and for some reason they always end up wandering through our back yard. Once Nala spots them, she lets out a bunch of growls and barks, but when they come close she’s all about playing and can’t wait to get out there to join them.
Then there are the stray dogs who come out of the woods every now and then. She definitely doesn’t like those intruder dogs, so they always get the fierce ‘Go away’ growls and barks.
So now we can rest safely at night knowing that Nala will keep us safe from the squirrels and birds. People on the other hand, she’d probably open the door for if she could.
I saw Dr Ruth!
After taking Nala to the dog park, I thought it would be fun to take her walking around downtown today. As we were walking along Market St heading back to the car, we stopped to see this vintage army jeep on display, and there she was, Dr Ruth! Nala and I even walked behind her for a little bit. She’s much shorter than I thought she would be, but still seemed very spry and cheery.
Not sure what she was doing walking through the market, but there must have been something big going on downtown. Saw a bunch of people walking around wearing big white name tags. I even saw Pat Conroy walking by as I was waiting to cross the street.
The storms just keep on coming!
Just in time for the new year comes TS Zeta, the 27th of the year. Popping up yesterday afternoon, it doesn’t look like it will stick around much longer, and won’t be much concern to anyone besides ships in the ocean.
Review: How to be Your Dog’s Best Friend
How to Be Your Dog’s Best Friend by the Monks of New Skete was a book that one of the dog park people recommended to us. Thanks to the wife’s aunt, we got a copy of it for Christmas, and dove right in. After getting through a few chapters, my first thought was “This is the book we should have read before getting Nala”.
The Monks of New Skete have apparently been breeding German Shepherd Dogs for quite some time now and also run a boarding/training program for other dogs, so they have a good amount of experience with breeding, raising and training dogs and dog psychology/sociology. Much of this collected wisdom (along with plenty of anectodes) is encapsulated very nicely in this book. The book offers a lot of good training tips and insights into the canine mind, which is something I think all dog owners would benefit from to help understand their dogs better. Apart from the training advice and techniques given in the book, I think the most valuable thing this book has to offer are the monks’ insights into the canine mind, and how dogs think and behave. A lot of topics are covered in the book, so at 321 pages some of the coverage is necessarily a little cursory. A sizable reading list at the back provides pointers to other books that cover specific topics in more detail though.
For dog owners, this is one that’s definitely worth adding to the bookshelf.
BTW, pay no attention to the bad or 1 star reviews at Amazon.com. All of those people seem to have gotten the wrong idea that the monks are trying to get across about disciplining your dog. They give the false impression that the monks advocate beating your dog into submission, which is totally way off base and suggests these people just didn’t get what the monks are trying to say about discipline. While a couple of physical punishment methods are provided, the monks qualify their use by saying:
physical discipline or correction is never an arbitrary training technique to be applied to each and every dog for all offenses
In considering their use, you should follow the rule of always using the least amount of force necessary to change the behavior. Don’t go overboard. Build on your corrections, making them progressively tougher until your dog responds appropriately. Above all, watch your dog: his response will tell you whether the correction is too soft or too stern.
physical discipline should be reserved for the heinous canine crimes mentioned earlier, not meted out for every episode of bad behavior
The reviewers that give the book a poor review seem to have missed all this. The chapter on discipline ends with a section on making up with your dog afterwards, which is a very important thing to do.
Heading out of puppyhood
Nala turned a year old a couple of days ago, and looking back, it’s pretty amazing how she’s affected our lives the past 9 months we’ve had her. It’s hard to imagine not having her around now.
|
|
| Here’s Nala at 11 weeks, a few days after we brought her home. She came about half-way up to our knees, and weighed in at 22 pounds. | Here she is at a year old. Now she comes up to about mid-thigh and weighs in at 75 pounds. |